Mid-American Conference

MAC In The Postseason

•   Northern Illinois has accepted an invitation to participate in the inaugural Vegas 16 Basketball Tournament, March 28-30, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The Huskies will meet UC Santa Barbara on Monday, March 28 at 4:30 p.m. CT (2:30 p.m. PT) in the Vegas 16 quarterfinals, live on CBS Sports Network.

•  Ohio (21-11) has accepted a bid to compete in the 2016 College Basketball Invitational. The Bobcats will host Albany (24-8) in CBI first-round action on Wednesday (March 16) in a 7 p.m. ET contest at the Convocation Center.

•  Ball State & Central Michigan will play in this year's CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. The Cardinals will visit Tennessee State tonight at 8 p.m. ET, while the Chippewas will host their first postseason game since 1970 as CMU will take on UT Martin Wednesday night (7 p.m. ET)

•  Akron secured the 2015-16 MAC Regular Season Championship, No. 1 Seed in MAC Tournament, and East Division Title with a 91-76 win over Ohio. The Zips set a pair of all-time records with 20 made 3-pointers in a game and 43 attempts (March 1). Akron has won a program-high 26 games three times The Zips will be making their sixth appearance in the NIT, the fourth under Dambrot.  Akron is 2-5 all-time in the tournament and 2-3 with Dambrot at the helm. Akron has made 11 Division I postseason appearances, including the eight of the last nine seasons.

•  As MAC Champions, The University at Buffalo men's basketball team will head to Providence, RI as the #14 seed and will face #3 Miami (FL) in the NCAA First Round.  The game will take place on Thursday, March 17 with a tip time of 6:50pm.  It will air nationally on TNT. The Bulls are making their second straight trip to the big dance after last night's 64-61 win over Akron in the MAC Championship Game.  UB is the first MAC Team to win back-to-back conference titles since Kent State in 2001 & 2002.

•  Akron (35th), Ohio (81st) & Buffalo (92nd) are currently ranked within the Top 100 of the RPI. 

• The Mid-American Conference finished the regular season ranked 10th overall in RPI (courtesy of RPIRatings.com). This marks the second staight season the MAC has finished in the Top 10 of conference RPI (10th in 2015). The highest the MAC has ever finished as a conference in the Final Season RPI rankings is 12th (2007-08, 2013-14 & 2014-15).

Postseason Notebook

Akron Zips (26-8, 13-5 MAC)
Akron will be making their sixth appearance in the NIT, the fourth under Dambrot, after claiming the Mid-American Conference regular season championship. Akron is making its first appearance since the 2012 season.  The Zips are 2-5 all-time in the event and 2-3 with Dambrot at the helm. Akron has made 11 Division I postseason appearances, including the eight of the last nine seasons. Akron last appeared in the NIT in 2012 against Northwestern. The Zips traveled to Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill. and missed a 3-pointer at the end of regulation, falling 76-74. 

Ball State Cardinals (19-13, 10-8 MAC)
Ball State shared the Mid-American Conference West Division championship for the first time since 2009 with a 10-8 league mark. The Cardinals suffered a first-round loss to Miami in the MAC Tournament. The program is making its first postseason appearance since 2002. Tuesday's meeting will be the third all-time between the teams, which played an ESPN Bracket Buster game in February 2006 in Muncie and a return game in Nashville the next season. Tennessee State won both of those meetings.

Buffalo Bulls (20-14, 10-8 MAC)
The Bulls are making their second straight trip to the big dance after last night's 64-61 win over Akron in the MAC Championship Game.  UB is the first MAC Team to win back-to-back conference titles since Kent State in 2001 & 2002. Miami is ranked 11th nationally and is 25-7 on the season and finished 13-5 in ACC play. This is the fourth all-time meeting between the Bulls and the Hurricanes.  Miami leads the series 2-1.  This is the first meeting since the 2006-07 season, a game UB won 60-57.

Central Michigan Chippewas (17-15, 10-8 MAC)
Central Michigan Men's Basketball has its first home postseason game since the 1970 season when it hosts UT Martin in a CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament game this week.It's the second consecutive post-season tournament appearance for the Chippewas, who played in the NIT last season. CMU is 17-15 and coming off its second straight Mid-American Conference West Division title. It marks the first time in program history that CMU has appeared in back-to-back Division I postseason tournaments. The last time the Chippewas hosted a tourney game was in 1970, the Division II Great Lakes Regional.If CMU wins on Wednesday it advances to a second-round game. It has not been determined whether that game will played in Mount Pleasant.

Northern Illinois Huskies (21-12, 9-9 MAC)
The Northern Illinois University men's basketball team has accepted an invitation to participate in the inaugural Vegas 16 Basketball Tournament, March 28-30, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The Huskies will meet UC Santa Barbara on Monday, March 28 at 4:30 p.m. CT (2:30 p.m. PT) in the Vegas 16 quarterfinals, live on CBS Sports Network. The Huskies will be playing in the postseason for the fourth time in school history, and the first time in 20 seasons. NIU appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1982, '91 and '96.  

Ohio Bobcats (21-11, 11-7 MAC)
The Bobcats have posted an 11-win improvement in 2015-16 under second-year head coach Saul Phillips after going 10-20 last year. Junior forward Antonio Campbell (Cincinnati, Ohio) -- the 2016 MAC Player of the Year – will lead the Bobcats into the CBI alongside redshirt sophomore guard Jaaron Simmons (Dayton, Ohio) -- a Second Team All-MAC honoree -- and freshman guard Jordan Dartis (Newark, Ohio) -- an All-MAC Freshman Team selection.Ohio is making its 22nd national postseason appearance in program in history and second in the CBI. The Bobcats defeated Brown in CBI first-round action in 2008 before suffering a 79-73 setback to Bradley in the quarterfinals in Peoria, Ill. Ohio is 15-22 (.405) all-time in national postseason play.